The Rangers at Culzean
Deirdre
Mackinnon is Senior Ranger at Culzean Castle and Country Park,
having joined the team in 1976, some 31 years ago. Prior to this,
she had spent two seasons working at the National Trust for Scotland
properties of Ben Lawers and Bannockburn. At that stage, Culzean had
two rangers, the Chief Ranger and Deirdre! Now she manages a team of
3 full time rangers with an additional 6 seasonal staff that join
the team between April and October each year. The team usually
consists of graduates in Environmental Studies or related subjects.
Experience is essential for careers in this area; practical
conservation work and working with people being particularly
important, and Culzean provides these opportunities in abundance.
The Ranger team has a vital role to play at
Culzean. Firstly, they are responsible for managing the park for
wildlife. This involves managing the wildlife habitats on the
estate; the woodland glades, ponds and waterways, shorefront and
dunes, cliffs, etc.
An important part of the job is record keeping.
Every day rangers go out on Park Patrol. They may appear to be
enjoying a stroll in the woods but they are surveying the park
looking for damage, litter picking, checking wildlife for new
species or counting numbers and monitoring activity, meeting
visitors and generally keeping in touch with the property. This is a
remarkably important task and is essential for park management. As
well as being used for wildlife management some of these records are
fed into a national databases including the Wetland Birds Survey,
Rothamsted Moth Survey, the Scottish butterfly census and bat and
squirrel records are also submitted..
Only by keeping accurate records do the rangers
know that the Red Squirrel population at Culzean is in decline with
a significant increase in Grey Squirrel numbers. As a result,
additional Scots Pines are being planted wherever possible to
support the Red Squirrel population. New trees will be planted, for
instance, to replace those lost during the winter storms or
deliberately removed as they become unsafe. This winter, about 150
trees were blown down in the storms - a higher than usual number.
All this timber will be used; onsite for fencing and barriers, for
sale for chipboard or as firewood for lower quality timber. Timber
that is unusable due to size or condition is used to provide
wildlife habitats for insects, fungi and small animals. When
replanting, there is a general move towards the traditional estate
mixed woodland in most areas.
Perhaps one of the biggest responsibilities the
rangers have is in working with visitors providing interpretation
and information. Again, this is where record keeping is important as
you cannot pass on to the visitors what you do not know! Being aware
of what is happening and where it is happening allows the rangers
team to greatly enhance the experience of visitors to the park. The
rangers undertake a wide range of guided walks and excursions in the
summer on a wide variety of topics covering all aspects including
the history of the estate, its buildings and wildlife. Information
about what is happening in the park is kept up to date on the plasma
screen in the Visitor Centre Shop as well as on a white board near
the Swan Pond.
As you would expect, the rangers work closely
with other staff at Culzean. The Gardening and Wildlife Club (a
group for adults) meet monthly and is run jointly by the gardeners
and rangers. The Young Naturalists Club for children is mainly run
by the rangers, with support from other departments when relevant.
The Club has been enthusiastically supported by youngsters since it
started in 1972. They meet fortnightly over the winter and have week
long events in July and August - about 24 days each year in total.
The Young Naturalists also share activities with the Castle Club run
by the Castle Education Officer. The ECOS (Environmental,
Conservation and Orienteering Skills) club is aimed at teenagers
between 12 and 16 years. Apart from assisting the rangers as
volunteer leaders with the younger Club and helping at events, the
members have 14 of their own meetings throughout the year with
activities ranging from important practical conservation projects on
the estate to fun exercises such as survival, natural history
studies and orienteering. Equally as important is the social
interaction of the members making new friends with similar
interests.
 Culzean
Castle and Country Park makes an important contribution to
environmental education for schools. Parties of pupils from schools
throughout south west Scotland and as far afield as Edinburgh and
Northern Ireland visit Culzean for a wide range of programmes
designed to support their school activities and curriculum. Between
16,000 and 17,000 school pupils from nursery to tertiary level visit
Culzean each year to experience these educational programmes. The
rangers alone work with some 10,000 of these children and Deirdre
and her team are constantly improving and developing the projects to
meet the school's curriculum needs in a wide range of subjects and
to provide an exciting and valuable experience for the children. For
example, a new World War 2 programme has been developed between the
rangers and Lorna, the Education Officer at Culzean, and supported
by a local enthusiast with a large collection of World War 1 and 2
memorabilia. All primary 7 pupils now study WW2 as a subject and
topics such as the Eisenhower connection, the Land Army "Digging for
Britain", the Home Front and rationing are all covered in the
Culzean programme.
So, on your next visit to Culzean... why not join
one of the many ranger activities and learn some fascinating facts
about Culzean, its history and environment. Deirdre has a clear
passion for Culzean... it has that affect on people.
Rangers Events are detailed in the Culzean Experience website:
www.culzeanexperience.com
Then follow the links to Events (top menu) then events leaflet
(right-hand menu).
So what’s so special about this pond tucked away in the woods of
Culzean Park?
Well, with over 10,000 school children to educate each year and a
lot of those children involved in the wildlife, natural history and
environmental aspects of the park, pond dipping had to be an
important part of those activities. What was needed was a large,
safe and secluded pond that would naturalise well and host all those
lovely slimy, squirmy, wiggly creatures so essential to a good
session of pond dipping.
So the rangers chose a good spot, and created a nice big natural
looking pond complete with vegetation and all the things necessary.
And boy did they do a good job! When out dipping one day—what is
that in your net… only a Great Crested Newt. Well, to me that just
means another slimy looking pond thing but to the rangers this was
serious stuff.
So here is some information about them from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page :
The Great Crested Newt’s habitat range extends from Great Britain
and Brittany in the west across much of Europe north of the Alps and
the Black Sea. It is one of only three amphibians which are
protected by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. It is one of three
newts found in the British Isles, along with the Smooth Newt and the
Palmate Newt, and is the biggest and least common of the three.
It is a protected species under schedule 5 of the UK's Wildlife
and Countryside Act 1981 and is therefore subject to the provisions
of Section 9, which make it an offence to do anything unpleasant to
them, including damaging a breeding site or resting place.
 Great
crested newts have dark grey-brown backs and flanks, and are covered
with darker coloured spots so that they appear almost black in
colour. Their undersides are either yellow or orange-coloured and
are covered in large black blotches. Males can be distinguished from
females by the presence of a jagged crest that runs along their
backs, dipping at the rear of the abdomen to a smoother-edged crest
above and below the tail. Adult newts have been recorded that are up
to fifteen years old and often return to the same breeding site.
After a courtship display great crested newts mate and breed in
ponds and pools. The female lays 200-300 eggs on aquatic plants.
Once juveniles have emerged from ponds it can take up to 4 years to
reach sexual maturity, during which time the juvenile newts are
primarily terrestrial.
Outside of the breeding season, adult and juvenile newts are
found in suitable terrestrial habitat where they seek shelter under
rocks, logs and other suitable hiding places.
Their diet consists primarily of invertebrates including insects,
worms, water snails, larvae and sometimes tadpoles.
So now you know! It’s not just people that have a passion for
Culzean Castle and Country Park! The rangers’ dipping pond has
turned into a sanctuary for one of Britain's rare species.
Dip with care children!
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